If you could take one element from New Horizons and bring it to New Leaf, what would you choose?

[-Lumi-]

Gosh is that ever a wordy title, my bad. I couldn't figure out how to shorten it. I'm also sorry if this question has been asked before! I tried to search and see if it had but I couldn't find anything. I may have missed it, though!

New Horizons has a handful of cool new features in it's game. It has new flower types, new NPCs, some new villagers, there's crafting, the ability to move (most) buildings, getting to choose where villagers move and they no longer randomly move out, we can change our hair whenever we want, we can terraform, break rocks, the game has certain types of paths built in, being able to move trees, bigger pocket size, etc.

For the sake of the thread though let's assume that New Leaf already has the character customization. I genuinely do not understand why character customization (choosing facial features and skin tones) wasn't included with the Welcome Amiibo update. If I could only choose one thing that would be what I'd pick because it is completely unfair to POC that varying skintones aren't included. Especially when we saw them in Happy Home Designer! It's also a little frustrating having my face be determined by Rover's questions at the start.

Aside from that though I think if I could only pick one thing I think I might opt for being able to destroy rocks, honestly. It's not the coolest thing to do but the rocks really get on my nerves in New Leaf. Especially since we can't place buildings or PWP's if a rock is in the way It would be so nice to eat an apple and be able to smash a pesky rock into a million pieces.

The runner up would probably be more pocket space & things auto stacking (...okay maybe that's three things but I'm choosing to say that auto stacking comes with having more pocket space, lol).

Being able to re-arrange buildings, choose my villagers plots, and being able to decide when my villagers move out are all really tempting options too, though! What about you?

 

[derpy429812904]

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[ForgottenT]

The ability to place furniture outside.

 

[derpy429812904]

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[daringred_]

my top three choices.

1. villagers moving wherever they like. in my NL towns, i have custom design patterns down every x amount of squares to prevent villagers from moving in wherever they like and/or ruining my paths, and it just makes my towns look so ugly. technically, i could kick them all up now but a) it would take me hours and b) if i decided to move in my last few dreamies on those towns, i'd have to place them all back down again. i don't mind the "random move-outs" as much because i always played daily and only had it happen once or twice by accident, and my towns seem to have soft-locked themselves since NH's release, with no villagers moving out even if i don't play for like a month.
2. in-game paths. i have dirt paths in my NL towns, but they were a pain to maintain (and i don't even bother anymore) because they rely on grass deterioration. having the permanent dirt path introduced in NH would've been a bit of a godsend honestly.
3. expanded inventory. i can cope without either, but they'd be nice to have. i always forget how small the NL inventory is when i go back to it, because i'm so used to NH's 40 or so spaces and always having all of my tools on me at once.

honorary mention to the long/wavy hair. not necessarily a feature but my characters might not have had the hairbow wig glued to their heads permanently if it had been there.

 

[Autumn247]

Definitely being able to place furniture outside

 

[Halloqueen]

The ability to choose your character's skin color. A basic feature that went too long unimplemented. Most other things I'm fine with New Horizons having exclusivity to.

However, since you outlined in the original post that we're talking a hypothetical where character customization was already a thing in New Leaf, I will say that the one other most glaring thing I would want is the ability to destroy rocks. Some of the rock placement in my towns is unfortunate and I'd like to be able to move them.

 

[Shawna]

Probably being able to place furniture outside.

 

[JustAnotherSapphic]

Being able to pay off your loans a little at a time. Alternatively, the ABD machine to store Bells.

 

[LadyDestani]

Honestly, there is very little that I would bring over from New Horizons to New Leaf. I do agree that being able to choose your skin tone absolutely should have been included, but it has never bothered me personally.

The one thing I would really want is the ability to place/move my villager's houses. Then, I wouldn't have had to spend hours laying down patterns and plot resetting to make sure I had every area covered in order to get my villagers placed where I wanted them. I would also be free to let villagers come and go more frequently in my main town, which is something I'd love to do but don't bother because I don't want to always keep the patterns down.

As a minor side request, I have always said I'd love to get rid of grass deterioration in New Leaf, so I wouldn't mind bringing that over from New Horizons too. But I've learned to live with it, so the villager house placement is the main thing.

None of the other new features really matter to me or interest me, which is why I'm still playing New Leaf and have no intentions of buying New Horizons.

 

[.: Meri :.]

Outside furniture would also be my pick! Especially since there's a lot of garden/nature-themed items that you can only place in an indoor, outdoor-themed room? Mainly, it would just really open up a ton of possibilities for town customization, and it was also something we could do in Happy Home Designer.
My second pick would have to be items being visible in storage! I can't tell you how many times I've tried on a piece of clothing or put down a furniture item just to remember what it looked like, then immediately shoved it back in my closet because I didn't want to use it after all. ;; Although I'd also love to have auto-stacking too; just thinking about the amount of time I've lost piling up fruit in my inventory...

 

[bcmii]

Being able to pay off your loans a little at a time. Alternatively, the ABD machine to store Bells.

I thought you could already do that in New Leaf? I never recall being made to pay the loan off all at once (aside from the down payment). And the ABD is, indeed, in New Leaf. As far as I know, they didn't change the functionality of loans or the ABD between New Leaf and New Horizons.

In New Leaf, you pay loans via the ABD, just as in New Horizons.

 

[BluebearL]

My second pick would have to be items being visible in storage! I can't tell you how many times I've tried on a piece of clothing or put down a furniture item just to remember what it looked like, then immediately shoved it back in my closet because I didn't want to use it after all. ;; Although I'd also love to have auto-stacking too; just thinking about the amount of time I've lost piling up fruit in my inventory...

Can't believe I didn't think of this one myself! It was always so tedious deciding what to keep and where to put what when you had to take things out and use them to see what they looked like/actually were in the first place!

Apart from that one, probably just some minor QOL things, I wouldn't want terraforming and I can live without outdoor furniture (PWP's are fun to earn and customisation has never been my focus when playing ac). Some QOL things that come to mind are; the change room and easier ways of moving furniture that are less tedious- I like being able to drag and drop things into place instead of getting my character to do it slowly.

 

[dizzy bone]

Definitely villager move-in/out mechanic from ACNH! As much as I enjoy placing furniture outside in New Horizons, I think there's a certain charm to working with the pattern slots and PWP options we get in ACNL. The only thing that bothers me about designing my NL town is the whole plot resetting thing and the fear of losing a villager randomly if I'm not careful.

 

[Dunquixote]

I agree with @dizzy bone and definitely would pick the move out mechanic. Even now, I worry that all my villagers are gone since I don’t remember if I did that little “trick” to ensure no one was moving before I took my hiatus. I am likely never to play it again, but you never know. The random move outs stressed me out a bit. If I could pick two things, it’d be decorating outside. I loved so much of the furniture in the game and I just love to decorate. So much more possibilities for me with the New Leaf furniture!

 

[Chris]

Villagers moving away. This significantly shortened the shelf life of the game for me. I don't have the type of lifestyle or attention span required to play the same game everyday for months on end and it was too much hassle preventing/working around this mechanic.

 

[duckykate]

if you could move buildings in NL it would be literally perfect

 

[Moritz]

I would take either the bigger bag or the auto stack.
These 2 things combined makes new leaf basically unplayable to me now.

 

[LaceAndForest]

I’d say the villagers move-in/out mechanics. This was already a source of « stress » in WW (could spend hours before they change their minds...). Now being able to decide for them is a big relief!

Second option would be placing furnitures outside, just to sprinkle some more life in the village :>

 

[PacV]

The way you choose where the Villager plot his house.

Even when the Welcome Amiibo Update make it easier due to the path trick i thunk it would be better if you got asked: “Hey! A new neighbor is moving in, where do you thunk his house should be?”

Could make things way easier.